Loring Randolph will step down as director of Frieze New York after less than a year in the position, and will assume the post of director of the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger collection in Dallas.

Randolph, who from 2017 to 2019 served as artistic director for Frieze New York, will remain involved with Frieze, assisting in the transition of leadership following her departure.

Frieze has canceled most of its fairs this year owing to Covid-19, showing work in online viewing rooms instead. In a statement to Artnews, Randolph cited the strictures associated with the pandemic as one of the reasons for her move. “The Covid isolation has made me acutely aware of how much I miss being around art,” she said, “so I am really excited to get closer to the works in the collection and to go more in-depth with my research into artists’ practices.”

Randolph noted that she has an enduring history with Nasher and Haemisegger. The pair are longtime patrons of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Their collection comprises work from the postwar era to that of contemporary artists working today, and is frequently shown at NorthPark Center, an upscale Dallas shopping center owned by the couple, and at public museums. Among the latter is the art museum at Princeton University, of which Nasher and Haemisegger are alumni.

Besides aiding Frieze in its search for a new director, Loring will serve as program director for the fair’s 2021 iteration, and will direct Frieze Sculpture 2020. The sculpture fair, which this year will focus on themes of women’s suffrage, migration, urban planning, and ecology, is held entirely outdoors. The show opens September 1 at Rockefeller Center in New York.